Determination
by Ishida no Revolution
Summary: Sasuke, Shikamaru and Naruto are assigned a new mission to a strange village named Ushiro because they have a lead on the Akatsuki. Could there actually be Akatsuki nesting there? Could Naruto and Sasuke fall in love? Ooc. NaruxSasu. On Hiatus.
1. Traveling, Babbling, and Tents

**A/N: **_**Heyyo! Michi-Chan here. Haha. Sorry if I have long periods of time before I update. I have a lot going on. Plus I don't get a lot of time on the computer anymore cuz my mum locks the computer up O.O no joke. I only get like an hour a day… soo. Yeah. Enjoy!**_

Chapter I

Traveling, Baling, and Tents

Sasuke, Naruto, and Shikamaru were on a mission out in the forest. They were sent to be watch dogs over a small village named Ushiro. This town was strange. It seemed to have sand, leaf, mist, sound, and other ninja mixed together. Somehow, they all got along quite well. Yes, the town is very peaceful. Of course, they hadn't actually seen it for themselves yet. They were only informed of it after being assigned the mission. So why are they watching it? They all had wondered that very question. Kakashi told them:

"All though it's peaceful, that doesn't mean that something won't happen. We have a lead that some of the Akatsuki may be there at Ushiro."

When Kakashi had mentioned the Akatsuki, the Uchiha had stiffened.

'My brother… Itachi! He could be one of them there!" Sasuke thought to himself. No one seemed to notice his stiffefying. Sasuke forced his heart to slow down. He needs to be calm.

Naruto glanced at the now-calm Sasuke for a while.

Sasuke turned his eyes to Naruto, '_Why is he staring at me?' _He wondered in his head. "What do you want baka?"

Naruto looked away, "Nothing."

"Whatever." Sasuke sighed '_He really is an idiot.'_

Naruto looked over at Shikamaru lazily lying under a trees shadow.

"Alright! Let's go you guys!" Naruto punched the air and started running, carrying half of the stuff.

"What a drag. I can't believe I'm stuck with you two." Shikamaru stood up, "Alright, let's go Sasuke." He threw a tent and Sasuke's bag at him and picked up his own and the food plus water supply and began running after Naruto.

Sasuke caught the items easily and slung them over his shoulder and carried them on his back. He started running and soon caught up to the other two. Naruto blabbed the entire 3 hours while Shikamaru and Sasuke tried to ignore him. At last, Shikamaru spoke up, "We should stop for the day. The sun's starting to set. Sasuke and Naruto, set up camp in a nice spot. I'll watch and make sure no one attacks us or something."

"Okay! Come on Sasuke!"

"Huhn." Sasuke muttered as the baka jumped around looking for a spot, obviously not realizing that the very spot they were standing, and jumping, on was perfect. Sasuke sighed, shook his head, and started to set up the tent.

"Hey, Sasuke-san! You found a spot!" Naruto pointed out. "Good work!" Naruto started setting up the other tent 20 feet away.

"You are such a baka." Sasuke said.

"Hey! I heard that!" Naruto glared at him and then laughed. "I can't stay mad at you! Believe it!"

Sasuke sighed for the millionth time today. Shikamaru chuckled.

'_Even though Naruto is a complete retard, he's the closest person to me and well, my best friend.' _the Uchiha thought.

"Yo, did you guys realize we have _two_ tents, not three?" Shikamaru randomly pointed out.

"Ohh! I call sharing a tent with Sasuke-san!" Naruto shouted and ran over and hugged his leg.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide and looked over at Shikamaru, "Shika-sann… please make him share your tent!" He pleaded to him.

"Sorry, I'm by myself. Plus, this might be interesting." He smirked and continued to sit against a rock.

"Yay!" Naruto shouted.

"oh no…" Sasuke mumbled and tried to shake the Uzumaki off. "Get. Off!" Naruto clung tighter and Sasuke viciously shook his leg and flung the baka off. "Stop messing around." Sasuke growled and continued working on the tent, almost finished. Naruto pouted and went back to putting up the second tent.

**20 minutes later**

Finally, they finished the set up of their temporary camp. Naruto's stomach growled.

"Ahh! I'm hungry! Someone cook something!"

"Sasuke-san, if Naruto cooks, he will set everything on fire. And I'm not cooking. So it's up to you." Shikamaru said, as if it were obvious.

"Ugh! Fine I'll make some rice." Sasuke didn't want to cook. Even if it was something as simple as rice!

"Don't' forget the ramen too!!" Naruto beamed.

"Ack!! Okay!"

Sasuke found some nearby sticks and started a fire and threw a pot of water on the fire. Waiting for the water to boil, Sasuke pulled out his manga, Shiroshitsuji (Black Butler) volume 3, and started to read, Naruto was chasing a firefly, and Shikamaru was lying down, presumably taking a nap. The water started to boil after a few minutes, so Sasuke grabbed three ramen cups and filled them with the now-semi boiling water. Naruto was grabbing for it, but Sasuke slapped his hand away.

"Baka! You'll spill it or you might burn yourself! Plus, it's not ready yet." Sasuke growled at him.

"Fine." Naruto huffed and sat down, crossing his arms. '_Sasuke's actually watching out for me! So to some degree, he kind of cares!'_ Naruto began thinking to himself.

-----------------------------------

_**A/N: Ohh! Cliff hanger?! Sort of! Haha. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but for now, review? It makes Shika more of a part to the story/plot thing!**_

**Shikamaru: … you're kidding? Why am I even part of this?!**

**Michi-chan: Because… I don't know… sorry ^^;**

**Naruto: OMG! A butterfly! *runs after it***

**Sasuke: … **


	2. Burning, Sleeping, And Laughing Maniacly

**A/N: heyyo! Its Michi-chan! Haha. So heres chapter 2! Sorry if you've been waiting too long O: I have to write this on paper and then later type it up on the computer! What a pain! Oh well. Anyways! Enjoy! **

Chapter 2: burning, sleeping, and laughing maniacally

"Yo, ramen's done." Sasuke handed some ramen to Naruto, "Careful, it's still hot." He walked over to the sleeping Shikamaru, set the second cup beside him, then walked back over to Naruto and sat beside him. The Uzumaki was almost done with his already, Sasuke eating his slowly, not too hungry, Shikamaru still sleeping.

"Naruto-san, I'm not going to finish this. Want it?"

"Believe it!" Naruto snatched the cup from Sasuke, spilling the boiling water in the pot on his own arm. Realizing what happened, he cried out in pain. "Ow! It's hot! Ow, ow, ow!"

"Naruto! Hold still!" Sasuke ran over to his bag and grabbed one of his shirts and soaked it with cold water and ran back to Naruto and gently held it against Naruto's arm, a little worried "Now, are you alright?" He asked the Uzumaki.

"Uh huh. It burns though." Naruto frowned.

"I think that's why they call it a _burn_." Sasuke smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, I guess so!"

Sasuke noticed he was holding Naruto's hand while pressing his damp shirt against the arm of the owner's hand. His cheeks began to heat up.

"Hey, Sasuke? You okay?" Naruto noticed his Uchiha oops.. Uhh… I mean _**his **_Uchiha was blushing, not sure what to think.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah! I'm fine." He responded. '_Why am I blushing?! What the hell!?'_ Sasuke mentally slapped himself.

….and somehow… Shikamaru slept through this all…

"Sasuke. I'm okay now." Naruto pointed out.

"oh. O-okay." Sasuke released the warm hand and tossed his wet shirt on a branch in a nearby tree "I'm going to sleep. G'night." Sasuke stood up and walked toward the tent.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted.

"What?" Sasuke asked, his back towards the Uzumaki.

"Thanks. Ya know, for taking care of me."

Sasuke blushed, yet again. "Yeah. You're welcome…baka."

"G'night Sasuke-kun." Naruto said.

"Mm." Sasuke mumbled and blushed deeper. He climbed in the tent and closed it.

'_Seriously, what is wrong with me?!' _Sasuke began thinking to himself as he changed into his sleeping wear. '_Why do I keep blushing!? I mean, it's not like I love him like that. And if I did, I would _never _have a chance with him. Never! Snap out of it you stupid baka!"_

"Ugh!!" Sasuke growled and smashed his fist into the pillow. He sighed and lyed down on his bedding and put his hands under his head. Naruto crept in and Sasuke didn't notice until Naruto was hovering over at him looking down with a curious expression.

"GAHH!" Sasuke screamed.

"Calm down!" Naruto put a finger to his lips. "I just put Shika to sleep in his own tent."

"Well sorry! You scared the fuck out of me!" Sasuke squeaked, still terrified.

"Sorry! Sorry! I heard you growl so I came in to see if you were alright!" He tilted his head, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Besides the part where I had the living day scared out of me." Sasuke remarked.

"I'm sorry!" Naruto hugged the Uchiha, feeling bad. "And you mean 'the living _night_ scared out of you'"

"It's fine. And I don't care! Anyways, I was just thinking. That's all." Sasuke hesitantly hugged him back.

"Oh. Good! What were you thinking about, huh?!" Naruto asked him.

"Uh… Well, you know. Life and what could be at Ushiro…" Sasuke allowed himself to blush, knowing Naruto couldn't see his face well enough in the dark.

"Oh. Hehe. Alright." Naruto crawled to the foot of Sasuke's bedding and pulled his knees to his chest. "I thought you were going to sleep?"

"Well, I couldn't fall asleep so I ended up just thinking." Sasuke almost added "about you" at the end of the sentence but he bit his tongue and kept it back.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry. You can go back to what you were doing earlier."

"Hmm. I wasn't really doing anything. Can I just stay here with you?" Naruto looked over at Sasuke innocently.

Sasuke smiled and sat up, "Yeah. You can stay in here."

"Yay! I'll keep you company so you won't get lonely!" Naruto grinned, then yawned.

"You sound tired. You should get some rest." Sasuke suggested.

"Noo. I'm -yawn- fine. I'm just a little… tired." Naruto said sleepily.

" Uh huh. We have a long day tomorrow. We plan on traveling without a break for 6 hours." Of course, this was a lie. But Naruto doesn't need to know that.

"Oh. Well, in that case… I'll go to sleep. Look away, I'm going to change."

"Uhh-kayy." Sasuke's eyes grew wide and he turned his eyes away. _'Damn! I will _not_ look. No. No. No. I won't. I won't. I won't look at him, no matter what. He's my friend!'_

"Okay. Done changing. You can look now." Naruto yawned again and put his hand over his mouth to cover up the yawn.

"Huh? Oh. Okay." Sasuke turned on his side to face Naruto.

"I'm going to bed Sasu! Night!"

"Yeah, me too. Night." Sasuke replied '_Did he just call me "Sasu"? Eh, anyways. I'm tired. Time for sleep.'_

And so they both fell asleep in mere seconds… not knowing that in fact, two of the Akatsuki were indeed nearby.

"Awuh! Look, little brother finally has a friend!" Itachi smirked deviously.

"And it happens to be with the nine tails." Kisame mimicked Itachi's smirk.

"Yes! Fox in the box! We must get the fox in the box!" Itachi started running away repeatedly saying that line, arms flailing. Kisame followed, a little annoyed by Itachi's antics. "What a maniac." He grumbled as they both disappeared into the night.

**________________________________________________________**

**The Following Events Occurred Somewhere Between 3:oo am and 4:oo am.**

Naruto woke up with a shock and beads of cold sweat on his forehead. He was terrified. His dream… he didn't even want to think about it. All the blood, the corpses of his friends, team mates, innocent people… decapitated, hacked up, torn into pieces… Why?! Why did something so peaceful, sleep, have to be ruined by something so terrible? He hated nightmares. They're absolutely gruesome and awful. Naruto crawled over to Sasuke. Sasuke was awakened by a whimper and something curling up to him. For a moment, he thought it was a dog but realized how ridiculous that was and saw it was Naruto.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" He asked gently.

"Sasuke! I had a horrible dream! Everyone was dead! Even you and Shikamaru! It was scary!" Naruto began to shake.

"Hush. It's okay. I'm here an I'm alive. Everything is alright."

Naruto looked at him to make sure he was really alive and that he was really there. "Yeah… but I'm scared! Can I lye here with you for the rest of the night? I don't want to be alone." Naruto snuggled closer to Sasuke.

"Yeah. That's fine. I'll be right here. I won't go anywhere."

"Thank you Sasu." Naruto closed his eyes, "and good night again."

"Good night." Sasuke murmured and hugged him closer then drifted off to sleep.

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**A/N: Okay, so be happy! There's your second chapter. ill get the third one up sooner or later. Don't rush me! :O haha, im all you want? I dunno. Well, its about 11pm on a school night. Ive had along day and I accidently X'd out the word thingy when I was typing so I had to re-type a part X.x tough. So sorry for any mistakes or if something might not make sense. Review? They make Itachi and Kisame not want to kill you… and you get lots of love form me! ^_^ see you next chapter! Michi-chan out! XD**

**Sasuke: …ITACHI!!!! I SHALL GET MY REVENGE! *clears throat* uhm. I mean… yo?**

**Naruto: Sasukee-kun! :D **

**Sasuke: O.o oh no.**

**Michi-chan: now now. Chilll outtt? Or ill throw this… *grabs nearest object* … piece of paper at you…!?**

**Sasuke: oh wow. threatening.**

**Itachi: HAHAHA. FOX!!**

**Naruto: *hides behind Sasuke***

**Kisame: …maniacs. RAWUH!!**

**Shikamaru: *still asleep***

**Michi-Chan: … how does he even sleep through this all?**

**Sasuke: I don't know. You're the writer. You tell us.**

**Michi-Chan: Touché. **


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